The spirit of the European Union is alive and kicking in South Lanarkshire thanks to funding from the Council and the European Regional Development Fund.
As the lead EU partner in the PROMASK project, South Lanarkshire Council has been helping tackle unemployment in two eastern European countries.
The Council has been working closely with West Thessaloniki, Neapolis and Sikies municipalities of Greece and the Potsdam-Mittelmark District of Germany to help develop strategies for tackling unemployment in the Municipality of Miskolc, Hungary and the Municipality of Kosice, Slovakia.
They have been swapping ideas, experience and best practice with the two eastern European countries with the intention of helping them set up new initiatives to:
- foster an enterprise culture through partnership with the public and private sectors in each area
- develop the resources to attract inward investment
- build a cross-border cooperation agreement between Kosice and Miskolc
This project will also allow the western European partners to tackle their own economic problems by learning from the experience gained on this project.
South Lanarkshire Council's PROMASK coordinator, Alec Stevenson said: "This is an important learning project for all the partners involved. Not only do we get to share our ideas with two countries who desperately need help to tackle their unemployment problems, but we can also share best practice so that our own local authorities can benefit from the experience."
So far, the partnership has completed two stages of the project. Stage 1 comprised of study visits by all the partners to each other's local authority during which audits were taken of the assistance currently available to local businesses. Discussions were also held with SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) to get their perspective of the main problems they faced and the opportunities available to them.
Stage 2 identified the priorities and action plans each area will need to implement their new business measures.
The third and fourth stages about to be put into practice, involving the implementation of the action plans followed by a review of the project, which will consider the potential for longer term actions with the possibility of extending this further afield to other eastern European countries.
Alec added: "We are working on a number of activities involving partner organisations, including Chambers of Commerce, Vocational Training Units and the local enterprise company and Enterprise Trusts. The project will encourage trade and inward investment by creating internet sites, videos and publications. Encouraging local job creation is a primary objective and the partners will participate in a study visit to the Lanarkshire Entrepreneurship Programme this month."
